This invention relates generally to manually-operated kitchen devices for preparing food, and more particularly to manual juicers for extracting juice from citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons and limes.
The juice of citrus fruit is often used in the preparation of food, as a beverage, or as a flavoring or constituent of food. Lemon juice, for example, can be used as a seasoning on fish or to protect cut fruit such as apples from browning, as a flavoring in iced tea and lemonade, and as a constituent of lemon meringue pie. Fresh squeezed orange juice can be enjoyed by itself as a breakfast beverage. Lime juice can be used for many of the same purposes as lemon juice, and as a flavoring in alcoholic mixed drinks. Many other uses for citrus juices are well known.
Extracting juice from citrus fruit can be accomplished in various ways. Perhaps the simplest way is to cut the fruit in half transversely and manually squeeze the half-fruit to extract the juice. While simple, this method is not very efficient because a significant portion of the juice remains unextracted, and squeezing the fruit by hand with enough force to extract the juice can be tiring.
A more efficient method of manually extracting juice from citrus fruit uses a manual juicer that includes an upstanding, externally ridged, convex dome generally corresponding in shape and size to the inside of the rind of a citrus fruit that has been cut in half transversely. The ridged dome is supported by a surrounding ring defining a slotted annular trough that catches the juice and collects the seeds while the juice drains through the slots of the trough into a reservoir, such as a bowl, located below. In use, one half of a citrus fruit that has been cut transversely is placed on top of the ridged dome, cut side down, and the half-fruit is pressed downwardly onto the dome while twisting the fruit relative to the dome about a vertical axis. The ridges on the dome disrupt the flesh of the fruit, releasing the juice.
A conventional manual juicer as described above usually has a handle that extends radially and horizontally from one side of the juicer, and a protrusion that extends radially and horizontally from the opposite side of the juicer. The handle can rest upon the rim at one side of a bowl while the protrusion rests on the rim at the opposite side of the bowl. To prevent rotation of the juicer and to stabilize it, the handle is held in one hand while the other hand is used to press and rotate the half-fruit against the juicer dome. Consequently, extraction of juice using a conventional manual juicer is a two-handed operation. Such a juicer can be somewhat unstable because the juicer is not fixed to the reservoir bowl but merely lies across the bowl, resting on the rim at opposite sides.
Although the seeds are collected in the slotted annular trough of the juicer, most of the pulp passes through the slotted trough, along with the juice, into the bowl below. Some recipes require the pulp to be removed from the juice prior to use, and many people, as a matter of preference, prefer to drink orange juice having little or no pulp. If juice with the pulp removed is desired, then a separate subsequent step is require to strain the juice to remove the pulp, such as by pouring the juice from the bowl through a wire mesh strainer and into a second bowl. Consequently, the preparation of strained juice can be somewhat cumbersome.
It would be desirable to provide a manual juicer for extracting juice from cut citrus fruit that permits one-handed, stable operation and that permits the preparation of strained juice, if desired, without a subsequent step. This and other desirable features are provided by a juicer and mating reservoir configured in accordance with the present invention.
The present invention, according to one aspect thereof, includes a juicer having a reservoir with a spout and an annular rim having a first indexing component. An extractor has an upright convex extracting dome surrounded by an annular trough having openings therethrough. The extractor has a strainer element and is removably seated on the annular rim of the reservoir. The extractor has a second indexing component that can mate with the first indexing component in at least two positions. The strainer element covers the spout when the first indexing component is mated with the second indexing component in a first position. The strainer element does not cover the spout when the first indexing component is mated with the second indexing component in a second position.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following descriptions of the preferred embodiments, made with reference to the drawings.